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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 2 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 2 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1887 | 3 |
| 1888 | 5 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 4 |
| 1894 | 4 |
| 1895 | 4 |
| 1903 | 1 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1918 | 1 |
38 stories matching tar
- Vigilante Violence on the Tacoma Waterfront
A man is tarred and feathered by a mob of 'beachcombers' in a brutal display of frontier lawlessness.
- Vigilante Mob Targets Interracial Couple in Walla Walla
A masked group forcibly removed a man and his wife from their home, subjecting them to a brutal public assault.
- The Opium King’s Last Stand: A Seattle Showdown
As federal agents prepare to prosecute the city's most notorious vice figure, he stands defiant in his hotel room, claiming his trunks were rigged and vowing to clear his name before a New York jury.
- Seattle's First Real Street Paving
A specimen half-block is laid on Commercial Street as a test to end the era of plank roads and mud.
- A Candy-Shop Front, a Church Shadow, and a Vice Conviction in Downtown Seattle
Rose Zetler was found guilty of running a disorderly house near Third and University, with testimony tying her husband to a tar-and-feathering in Winnipeg.
- Vigilante Justice in the Coal Mines
After his wife revealed a harrowing story of abuse, a coal company worker took the law into his own hands against a 'trusted' physician.
- The Iron-Jawed Worm That Ate Seattle's Wharves
At the foot of Harrison Street, the Colman family has a new weapon against the teredo worm: steam, a vacuum, and a dose of dead oil of tar.
- The Swindler Who Tried to Sell Insurance to a Ghost
A Seattle man attempts to scam his brother in California with a fake insurance policy, only to be outsmarted by a skeptical editor.
- The Unlucky Speckled Hen and the Tarring Party
In an era of domestic tension, a Washington housewife's patience for her husband's sloth and a neighbor’s story of a local scoundrel collide in a kitchen mishap.
- A Violent Opium Sting Goes Wrong
An attempt by customs officers to pose as black-market buyers of 375 pounds of opium resulted in a brutal, bloody brawl that left three people hospitalized.
- Aberdeen's Water Wars: A Town at Odds
When the city council held a public meeting at the Acme Opera House to rally support against a legal challenge to the town's water works, the bitter internal feuds of 1891 spilled out for all to see.
- The Scandal at St. Mary’s
A Seattle Episcopal rector faces a congregation-led revolt after rumors of 'immoral practices' turn an ordinary service into a chaotic public showdown.
- A Missing Man, a Secret Silver Oath, and a Sheriff's Certainty
Charles K. Gloystein vanished after refusing a vigilante pledge; Sheriff Pugh blamed political enemies in Spokane County's Populist hotbed.
- A High-Speed Rescue on the Streets of Oroville
When a runaway horse endangered a child in the heart of town, a man bypassed the mob to execute a daring automotive rescue.
- The Charity Case Who Came Back a Brutal Husband
Port Blakely mill hands passed the hat for a crippled co-worker and sent him home to Kentucky. He came back married — and the town's justice of the peace had to take his wife away from him by night.
- The Judge Who Ejected His Own Lawyer: A Tacoma Courtroom Meltdown
In a bizarre turn of events at the Thurston County Courthouse, Presiding Judge Laurence silenced defense counsel Bronston and refused to hear the prisoner's testimony, leaving John Halson to face burglary charges in silence.
- The Opium Smuggler's Revenge
A Whatcom man claims he was framed by corrupt officials in a botched smuggling sting, and he's ready to tell all in court.
- The Opium Conspiracy: How Seattle’s Customs Chief Played Both Sides
A dramatic trial reveals a scheme where federal inspectors smuggled contraband across the border while pretending to seize it, exposing deep corruption in early 20th-century Pacific Northwest law enforcement.
- The Swindler in the Customs House
A former customs official turned smuggling mastermind uses a fake 'special detective' scheme to trick colleagues and line his own pockets with molasses-filled trunks.
- The Day Seattle Shut Down: Sailors, Longshoremen and the First Labor Day
Banks, courts and public offices closed for the first time in the city's history, 2,500 people packed Pioneer Place for a 36-minute tug-of-war, and a labor orator told the crowd that good wages are the engine of everyone's prosperity.
- Ida May Love Went to Sea as 'Dan McArdle'
A Whatcom newlywed walked out on her husband, her skirts and her name to serve seven weeks aboard the warship Monterey — and the Post-Intelligencer tracked her to a Leavenworth dance hall, where she was still talking about 'us boys.'
- The Price of Loyalty in Kennewick
Mayor Sherk forms a Vigilance Corps to monitor local residents for signs of 'disloyalty' toward the U.S. war effort.
- The Town Takes a Stand Against Domestic Abuse
Forty-three women in Olympia sign a resolution formally denouncing a local man for his history of violence against his wife and children.
- The Brutality of T. W. Glasgow
After Olympia women organized against his domestic violence, a local man attempts a public defense, calling his wife 'deranged' and denying the physical abuse that witnesses reported.
- The Trickle-Down Fury of the Waterfront
A brutal hierarchy on a Seattle steamboat illustrates the chaotic and abusive nature of labor relations in the 1889 maritime trade.
Also about this, in other words
- The Salvation Army's Odorous Opponents
A group of young men tried to drive the Salvation Army out of town by dousing their hall in polecat oil.
- The Price of a Fire: Stolen Lubricant
A Wilkerson man is jailed for pilfering railroad grease to heat his home.
- The Squeaky Delegate from Everett
A state labor convention in Spokane comes to a screeching halt when a delegate's artificial limb runs dry.
- A Sudden End in the Aberdeen Ballroom
A prominent local businessman collapses and dies while dancing.
- The Axe Slip That May Have Cost a Newport Boy His Foot
Will Scott, 15, was helping his father at a Jackson wood camp near Penrith when the axe glanced from a log, severing cords and crushing bone in his foot. Dr. Phillips dressed the wound.
- The Gas War Comes to Walla Walla
A visiting developer refuses to post a $1,000 bond to secure a municipal franchise, sparking a showdown over public infrastructure and utility monopolies.
- A Violent Dispute Over the White River Tobacco Harvest
A partnership turns sour when a farmer allegedly assaults his partner with a piece of lumber during the curing process.
- The Miracle Cure-All
A traveling medical practitioner claims a bloodless breakthrough in Everett, drawing crowds and skepticism.